CHAPTER XIII.

WAYNE TOWNSHIP

Wayne Township takes its name from "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of Story Point and the conqueror of the Indians at "Fallen Timbers" in 1794. It was formed in 1806, and was one of the six townships into the which the county was at that time reorganized. It originally included the territory now occupied by Oliver, Scott and Winchester Townships.

Surface.

The surface is undulating. In the east central portion it is broken by low hills, and deeply furrowed by the water courses. The soil is a heavy clay, highly impregnated with iron and for the most part produces fine crops of corn, wheat and clover. The narrow valleys are very fertile

and grow an excellent quality of tobacco. In the western part of the township the soil is a compact boulder clay, and is rated as "thin land." The valley of Cherry Fork, a tributary of the West Fork of Ohio Brush Creek embraces some of the prettiest farms and most fertile lands in Adams County.

Creeks.

Three small branches from the northwest, west and southwest portions of the township respectively, unite a little to the west of the village of North Liberty and form Cherry Fork of the West Fork of Ohio Brush Creek. It is a narrow and rapid stream and in its lower course attains considerable size. From the great number of large wild cherry trees that formerly grew in the valley of this stream it derives its name. At Harshaville it receives the waters of Grace's Run, a pretty little stream that flows through the north part of the township and which is augmented in its course by Martin's Run near the Oliver Township line.

Early Settlers.

Samuel Wright, who came from Kentucky to Cherry Fork and erected a cabin where the brick dwelling now stands on the Allison farm, just to the west of the present village of North Liberty, was perhaps the first settler within the present limits of the township. This was in March, 1799. Here he lived and died, having reared a large family, of which a son, William, was the father of A. M. Wright, the gunsmith of Cherry Fork, now in his eighty-fifth year, yet working at his trade like a man of forty. He has in his possession a pair of doe-skin gloves made by a sister of his father, Margaret McKittrick, as a wedding gift and which was worn by him at his marriage. A pair of silk stockings, worn by his father when he was married, and kept as "wedding" stockings

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and worn by each of his seven sons and four daughters at their marriages, is also carefully treasured away by Mr. Wright.

In the year 1800, Adam Kirkpatrick came from Bourbon County, Kentucky, and settled on the farm now owned by Catharine Liggett on Grace's Run. He married Rosanna Patton. In this year, also, Joseph McNeil and his brother James built cabins on Cherry Fork about a mile southeat of the village of North Liberty. The next year Francis McClellan settled near the McNeils. Then came James and William McKittrick and located where John Widney now resides on lands then owned by Samuel Wright. In 18o1, Robert Morrison settled on the farm now owned by William Morrison near Eckmansville. James Smith ca to the Nathan Plummer farm in 1802, and Robert Foster located on the Foster farm two miles southeast of North Liberty. In this year, also, James Young settled at Youngsville, and William Finley, James Finley, John McIntire and James Caskey located in the eastern portion of the township.. Thomas Wasson, in 1805, built a cabin on the farm recently owned by Campbell Wasson. Daniel Marlatt, in 1804, settled on the o Marlatt farm west of North Liberty, and William and Daniel John, James Ross came to the township about the time of its organization.

The Cherry Fork Cemetery

at tne village of North Liberty is the oldest burial place in the township General Robert Morrison has stated that he dug the grave for the first interment here, the little son of William Davidson killed by lightning in the year of 1802. The negro, Roscoe Parker, who was lynched by a mob for the murder of old Mr. and Mrs. Rhine, was buried in the northwest part of the old cemetery in the "pauper's corner," by old Sam Bradley an ex-slave, who for many years was a familiar figure about the village of North Liberty.

The new cemetery south of the present U. P. Church is a prettily arranged and beautifully ornamented "city of the dead."

Churches.

There are four churches in the township: The U. P.. (see sketch of) at North Liberty; the M. E. at same place ; the Presbyterian, at Eckmansville, and "Peoples," at Youngsville.

Schools.

NORTH LIBERTY ACADEMY—The village of North Liberty in days gone by was a widely known educational center. "The Old Academy on the hill," with its broad, green lawn ornamented with, shrubs, vines and evergreens, is held in the memory of hundreds of fathers and mothers as a beautiful oasis in the schooldays of their youth.

The beginning of the. North Liberty Academy was a Select School taught by Kiev. Jacob Fisher, at his own home in the winter of 1848-9. In 1851 the old Associate Reformed Church building, one-half mile east of North Liberty, was moved to the village and fitted up for an academy building, where Rev. Fisher taught several terms. In the summer of 1852, Rev. James Arbuthnot taught a select school in the old brick church south of the village. In 1852-3, Rev. Arbuthnot and Rev. W. H. Anderson conducted a class in the old Associate building. In 1854, Rev.

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Arbuthnot, James Wright and D. H. Harsha conducted the school. Then came Rev. Gilbert Small and Rev. N. R. Kirkpatrick. About this date a joint stock company was organized, and the present building was erected It is a massive frame of the old academic style of architecture, with great dome rising from the center, and is after the lapse of nearly a half century, in good condition.

The following advertisement from an old newspaper points clearly to the beginning of the North Liberty Academy : "Efficient means having been taken permanently to establish an Academy at North Liberty, a suitable room has been provided for temporary occupancy, and arrangements have been made for opening a School on Wednesday, April 1, 1857, to be taught by the Rev. N. R. Kirkpatrick assisted by Rev. Gilbert Small. Tuition for languages, Algebra, etc., $5.50; English lower es, $3.25; Boarding, $2.00."

The Academy was conducted by teachers of more or less ability and with varying success financially, until 1868, when the academy was sold to Rev. Joseph Smith, a Baptist minister. He and his wife, a most excellent lady and teacher of marked ability, built up the school, improved

the grounds, and did much to make the school prosperous. But Prof. Smith, a robust and strong-minded gentleman, with very pronounced views on the questions of temperance, politics and social affairs, was a thorn in the side of a little coterie of individuals such as may be found in

all isolated communities, who assume to be social, religious and political autocrate. The community in and about North Liberty was mainly Abolitionist and radically Republican in politics, and Associated Reform (United Presbyterians) and Covenanters in religion, the very impersonation of "holier than thou." Prof. Smith was a Democrat, a Baptist, and an advocate of temperance who declared the secret indulgence in alcoholic drink, a greater evil than the moderate open use of the same. These differences of opinion between Prof. Smith and the would-be autocrats soon led to bitter personalities, with the result that his school was tabooed and he ostracised in the community. In 1882, Prof F. B. Stivers of the Higginsport. Ohio, public schools, leased the Academy from Prof. Smith and opened a Normal and Training School for teachers. From the firt the new school was a success. In the Spring and Summer terms of 1883 there were nearly 10o students enrolled and four teachers were employed. In September of this year, Prof. Stivers took charge of the West Union public schools, and the Academy having been

purchased by the U. P. Church was again put under sectarian control. After two years of disappointment, the management leased the buildings to Prof. Jones, now Superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Columbus, 0., and Prof. Dodge, an eminent instructor, who again built

the school up to its former standard. Profs. Jones and Dodge were succeeded by adventurers in academic and normal school work, with the result that the building and grounds were sold to the Board of Education of Wayne Township and converted into a public school building in 1893.

If many of the energetic and liberal minded men who at various periods attempted to found a permanent institution for the instruction and training of young men and women at the old academy had been unselfishly supported by the community, there would be there today a school

with hundreds of students and an institution, a credit to the community.

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Sub-District Schools.

The first schoolhouse in the township was a log structure on the Baldridge farm, in which William Patton was the first teacher

There are eight sub-districts in the township, and in each there is a plain, cheap frame schoolhouse by the dusty roadside with neither shade nor lawn excepting the town school in the old academy building.

Teachers are paid from $25 to $35 per month, and the schools are in session from six months to eight months in the year. The following is the enrollment in each district in the year 1899:

Mills.

Samuel Wright, the first settler at Cherry Fork, built the first mill a tub-wheel, about the year 1802, on the creek near where Hunter’s steam mill now stands. Afterwards, Robert Thomas erected a horse mill, at this point which was in later years supplanted by a water mill and this in turn by a steam mill. At the present steam mill in 1879, the proprietor, Stewart McCormick, was mangled and killed by his clothing becoming entangled in the belting of the machinery. David Potts, his brother-in-law, succeeded Mr. McCormick, and conducted the business for some years. The present proprietor's name is Hunter.

Villages.

NORTH LIBERTY (or Cherry Fork) POSTOFTICE was laid out in 1848 by Col. William McVey He was a radical Abolitionist and named the village North Liberty, as the new village plat lay north of Cherry Fork, and his residence and store to the south of that stream, opposite the old water mill. The village now contains two general stores, one drug store, hardware store, furniture store, and merchant tailor shop, A. D. Kirk, proprietor, and one hotel. There are two resident physicians, two churches, and one Lodge. I. O. O. F. Population abut 300. It is nine

miles from West Union and five miles from Winchester and fourteen miles from Manchester on the Ohio River.

YOUNGSVILLE is situated two miles to the southward from the town of Seaman on the C. P. & V Ry. It was founded by David Young who opened a small store there in 1840. C. E. Silcott & Company did a flourishing business there for many years. J. F. Young and others following

also, were merchants in the village. It has one church—The People - in which any denomination may hold service. Population about 75.

ECKMANVILLE—This is a little cluster of buildings two miles southwest of North Liberty, among which there is one store, one blacksmith shop and two churches - one M. E. and one Presbyterian. The village was laid out by Henry Fckman, a blacksmith, who first settled here in 1824. In the period from 187o to 1885, John Morrison and son and later A. B. Morrison & Company did a flourishing mercantile and banking business at this village.

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The United Presbyterian Church.

About the year 1797-8 several families, members of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, came from Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky to the East Fork of Eagle Creek, Adams County, in the vicinity of the present town of West Union. These families petitioned the Presbytery of Kentucky, and Rev. Adam Rankin was the first supply sent by that body. He preached at the house of James January who then kept a tavern at the foot of the hill west of West Union on the old Cincinnati road, in the autumn of 1799.

In the autumn of 1802 four ruling elders, Joseph McNeil, Stephen bayless, John Leach and Paul Kerr, were elected, and ordained by Rev. A. Craig. This was the first organization of the A. R. Presbyterian Church in Adams County The first Lord's supper was administered in the congregation by Revs. Rankin, Craig and Steele in the autumn of 1803. About this time Rev. Robert H. Bishop (afterwards President of Miami University) and Rev. David Risk, both recently from Scotland, came within the bounds of the congregation. Rev. Bishop continued as a stated supply until the summer of 1804. At this time Rev. Bishop refused a call as pastor of the congregation at a salary of $400, one-half his time to be devoted to preaching to members on Cherry Fork (at North Liberty) of Brush Creek. The Rev. Risk was then called He accepted and was duly installed as pastor of the congregation In the spring of 1805 the members living at Cherry Fork were organized into a separate congregation, and John Wright, Samuel Wright, and John McIntire were ordained ruling elders who, with Joseph McNeil, ordained at Eagle Creek constituted the first session of the Cherry Fork congregation. The church house was built of logs, the cracks chinked with blocks and daubed with clay. There was neither fire-place nor stove, and no floor. The congregation sat on slabs of timber supported on pegs. Rev. Risk continued in charge of the congregation about two years, dividing his time equally between it and the Eagle Creek congregation nine miles away. Rev. Risk demitted his charge in August, 1806, and until the autumn of 1809 these congregations were without a pastor. In the meantime the members residing on West Fork of Brush Creek and George's Creek (Tranquility) organized at the West Fork congregation and erected Hopewell Meeting House. In the summer of 1808 Rev. William Baldridge, of Big Springs, Virginia, preached to these congregations. On the twentieth of November he took charge of the congregation here, having removed with his family from Virginia. His time was divided one-half being devoted to Cherry Fork. For this latter service he was to receive $165, one-half of this in articles of merchandise at the following prices as fixed by a committee from the congregation of which Judge Robert Morrison was chairman:

Beef and Pork, per cwt $2.50

Wheat, per bushel .58

Rye, per bushel .42

Corn, per bushel .25

Oats, per bushel .25

Whiskey, per gal .50

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Seven hundred linen, per yard .50

Clean swingled flax, per yard .12 1/2

Maple sugar, per pound .12 1/2

At the beginning of Rev. Baldridge's pastorate the old log church at Cherry Fork was enlarged by taking down one side and adding a room by making off-sets where the extension began. One of these off-sets was arranged for a pulpit which placed it at the middle of one side of the building enlarged to 35x55 feet. Stoves were not provided until ten or twelve years later.

Rev. Baldridge was not installed as pastor, regularly, until the year 1820. The reason of this delay was that Rev. Baldridge was supposed to sympathize with Dr. Mason in his deviating course. In 1829 West Union, Cherry Fork, West Fork and Russellville (North Fork of Eagle Creek) united in calling Samuel C. Baldridge to be colleague to his father in a joint pastorate over these four congregations. Rev. William Baldridge died in 183o. The congregation was vacant for two years. In the spring of 1832, the Lord's Supper was administered by Rev. D. McDill.

On the first of November, 1832, Rev. Robert Stewart took charge of the congregation at Cherry Fork and West Fork. He was ordained and installed in the following December. He received as one-half his salary from the Cherry Fork congregation $219.35. In 1833 a new brick church house 5ox5o feet was erected containing fifty-eight pews.

In 1837 the question of Negro slavery and the temperance movement, divided the Cherry Fork congregation, and Col. William McVey with others formed the "Associate Congregation of North Liberty." In 1846 the Unity congregation was formed. Rev. Stewart died in the year 1851, having been born near Wheeling, Virginia, in 1796. In September 1853, Rev. D. McDill was ordained and installed as pastor of the congregation. In 1855 the present commodious brick church was erected. It is 50 x 70 feet with a 22-foot ceiling. After Rev. McDill's resignation, John S. Martin was called and. accepted, and was installed in October 1877, which place he filled with marked ability until the date of his death, April 6, 1889. Rev. Martin received a salary of $1,000.

On September 30, 1890, the present pastor, J. A. C. McQuiston, was installed over the congregation, at a salary of $1,000. Rev. McQuiston is a native of Illinois.

The church is in a fairly prosperous condition—the membership being composed generally of prosperous farmers and merchants. The "clanish" spirit yet manifests itself among those of limited education and of little experience in the world, but the younger element is inclined to be liberal and broad minded.

In fine weather the Sabbath service is largely attended, each member turning out in his best carriage drawn by his most spirited team— and it is a sight never to be forgotten, this line of carriages—a line not exceed in length or numbers at any place of worship in the State.

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REMINISCENCES.

The last black bear ever seen in this portion of Adams County was caught a trap by Samuel Wright's boys about the year 1835, near the mouth of Grace's Run on Cherry Fork. It weighed nearly two hundred pounds after being skinned and dressed. At that time deer were plentiful

region.

A Remarkable Centenarian.

In 1883 there was living near Youngsville in this township, a pioneer of the western country, by name of Joseph Smittle. In August of that year, the writer attended a basket, dinner given at the residence of the old pioneer celebrating his 104th birthday. He was then in full possession his faculties, excepting his sight which was somewhat impaired. His hair was but slightly streaked with gray, and he had the general appearance of a well-preserved man of not more than seventy-five years of age. He lived to be 106 years old.